Printing machines comprising several printing groups

ABSTRACT

A printing machine is comprised of several printing groups, at least one dryer and at least one folding apparatus. At least two of the printing groups are arranged side by side in the axial direction of the cylinders in the printing groups. A longitudinal direction of the dryer extends perpendicular to the axes of rotation of at least one cylinder group which defines a printing gap.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This U.S. patent application is the U.S. national phase, under 35 USC371, of PCT/DE2003/002598, filed Aug. 1, 2003; published as WO2004/024448 A1 on Mar. 25, 2004 and claiming priority to DE 102 36 864.3filed Aug. 12, 2002, the disclosures of which are expressly incorporatedherein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to printing presses with severalprinting groups. The printing press also includes at least one dryer andat least one folder.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A web of material, such as, for example, a web of fabric to beimprinted, or such as a paper web, is imprinted in each printing groupof a press that includes several printing groups. Following theirpassage through the dryer, the webs are combined into a strand, which isdivided into individual groups, stacks or batches.

Customarily, the imprinted webs are conducted out of the printing groupsof such a press, which printing groups are placed aligned in a firstdirection. The web is conducted in a direction which extends in a planedefined by this first direction and a vertical line.

This method of guiding the web raises a number of problems. If it isdesired to assign a separate dryer to each printing group, for dryingthe web imprinted in that printing group, the option basically exists toarrange the dryer vertically above the printing group in an extension ofthe printing group. The result is that extremely high buildings arerequired for the placement of such a printing press with its includeddrier. If, on the other hand, it is decided to conduct the webshorizontally through the drying devices, an arrangement results in whichthe dryers are placed between the printing groups. Therefore, the presshas a very great length in the alignment direction. This leads togreatly different web lengths between the individual printing groups andthe folder, so that the printing groups must be operated with a largephase offset in order achieve a correct position of the webs, withrespect to each other, at the folder.

Although a more compact construction could possibly be achieved by theprovision of a common dryer, through which the webs from all of theprinting groups are conducted together, this possible solution has thedisadvantage that, depending on the placement of the dryer with respectto the printing groups, webs must be conducted between the printinggroup in which they were printed, and the dryer over long distances.These webs must thus be supported, or must be rerouted several times. Inthe course of this web support or rerouting, smearing of the not yet dryink, due to contact of the web with the deflection rollers or thesupport rollers can occur. Such smearing results in a loss of quality ofthe printed products.

DD 58 311 discloses a rotary printing press. A dryer is placeddownstream of each printing group, and several folders are alsoprovided.

DE 40 12 396 A1 and DE 44 08 027 A1 both show web-fed printing presseswith dryers and folders. The axes of rotation of the folding cylindersof the folder extend parallel with the longitudinal direction of thedryer.

EP 888 887 A2 discloses a rotary printing press with several printingtowers and several folders. The axes of rotation of the foldingcylinders extend parallel with respect to the axes of rotation of theprinting cylinders.

A printing press with several printing groups, which are arranged in theaxial direction of the cylinder shafts, is known from DE 198 806 C. Aninlet of the formers is arranged transversely with respect to theprinting cylinders.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is directed to providing printingpresses with several printing groups.

This object is attained in accordance with the present invention by theprovision of a printing press having a plurality of printing groups andat least two folders. An axis of rotation of a first transverse cuttingcylinder of the two folders is parallel to an axis of rotation of atleast one of the cylinder groups defining a printing gap. With respectto an axial direction of its cylinders, at least one printing group isarranged next to another printing group. The two folders are placedaligned. The two folders are each situated in a space between twostructural components each consisting of a printing group, a dryer and aturning bar.

It is a particular advantage of the printing press in accordance withthe present invention that it provides a compact construction with shorttravel paths of all of the webs to be imprinted between each web'sprinting group and the folder. Since the imprinted webs each exit fromtheir associated printing group transversely with respect to thealignment direction of the printing group, the dryers can be arrangedtransversely with respect to the alignment direction of the printinggroup, and therefore require neither a large structural height nor largedistances between the printing groups in the alignment direction.

The axes of the cylinders defining the printing gaps of the printinggroups are oriented parallel to the alignment direction, so that eachimprinted web can be conducted to the associated dryer, from the outletof the printing group, without deflection or turning.

The path of guidance of the webs to be imprinted from the bottom to thetop of each one of the printing groups makes possible an arrangement ofthe dryers approximately at the outlet level of the webs from theprinting groups, so that a space at the bottom of each printing group,which space remains unoccupied underneath the dryers, can be used forother purposes. For example, roll changers, which are useable for thematerial supply of webs to the printing groups, as well as possiblyconveying devices that are useable for transporting fresh rolls ofmaterial to be imprinted to the roll changers and for carrying off usedrolls, can be arranged in a useful manner in the space below the dryers.

The printing press in accordance with the present invention is equippedwith two folders. These two folders are also usefully set up in thealignment direction.

The folders are preferably each located in a space between two adjacentstructural components, each of such structural components being formedby a printing group, a dryer and a turning bar arrangement for use infeeding the web of material exiting from the dryer to the folder. Inthis arrangement of folders and structural components, it is possible tofeed a paper web, that has been imprinted in one of the printing groups,selectively to one of the two folders. If the number of pages of aproduct to be printed does not fully occupy the capacity of the printinggroups, the option is provided by

-   this arrangement of printing groups and folders to employ a printing    group, which is not required for the first print job, together with    the second folder, for producing a second printed product, which    second printed product can be independent of the first one.

A further advantage of the present invention resides in that productiondoes not come to a stop if one folder fails. Such production can becontinued through the use of the second folder instead of through theuse of the first folder.

Preferably, the first of the two folders is arranged centered betweentwo of the structural components in order to minimize the differences inthe path lengths between the output of the individual printing groups.

It is also within the scope of the present invention to arrange thefirst and second folders in spaces which do not adjoin.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A preferred embodiment of a printing machine in accordance with thepresent invention is represented in the drawings and will be describedin greater detail in what follows.

Shown are in:

FIG. 1, a schematic top plan of view a printing press in accordance withthe present invention, and in

FIG. 2, a schematic side elevation view of the printing press inaccordance with the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

A somewhat schematic top plan view of a printing press, and inparticular of a heat-set printing press for use in the printing oftelephone directories, is represented in FIG. 1. The printing presscomprises four four-color printing groups 01, 02, 03, 04, which arearranged for a width of six pages of the web 07 to be imprinted. Theaxes of the various printing cylinders in each of the printing groups01, 02, 03, 04 lie parallel with respect to each other and to thealignment direction of the printing groups. This direction is verticalas viewed in FIG. 1[)]. In other words, the axes of rotation of theprinting groups 01, 02, 03, 04 are in the plane of FIG. 1 and extend inthat plane. As represented in FIG. 2, each printing group 01, 02, 03, 04is supplied with a paper web 07 by a roll changer 06, which paper web 07enters its respective one of the printing groups 01, 02, 03, 04 at thebase of the respective printing group and leaves its respective printinggroup 01, 02, 03, 04 at the upper end of that printing group.

Because of the arrangement of the printing groups 01 to 04 with thecylinder axes of the printing groups extending parallel in the alignmentdirection of the four printing groups 01, 02, 03, 04, it is notpossible, as would be the situation with a conventional construction ofprinting groups in series, and in cases where four-color printing is notperformed in every printing group and where more webs than printinggroups exist, to conduct a paper web successively through two printinggroups for being able to imprint the web in the two printing groupssimultaneously. However, this limitation is not disadvantageous inconnection with the use of the subject invention as a telephonedirectory printing press, since printing of telephone directories, inparticular for the North American market, is essentially performed infour colors.

In the schematic representation of the present invention, as shown inFIG. 2, the paper web 07 is represented as initially being conductedvertically out of the printing group 01. The now printed web 07 isdeflected into a generally horizontal path at a turning or deflectionpoint 08, which turning or deflection point 08 can be provided by adeflection roller. It is, of course, also possible to construct each ofthe printing groups 01, 02, 03, 04 in such a way that the paper web 07leaves the last printing gap directly in a horizontal orientation andis, in this orientation conducted to a dryer 09 which is arrangeddownstream of the printing group 01 without the paper web 07 beingdeflected at all once it has left the printing group.

A longitudinal direction of the dryer 09 is arranged transversely to theaxes of rotation of at least one cylinder group defining the printinggap in the respective one of the printing groups 01, 02, 03, 04 withwhich the dryer is associated.

The horizontally oriented dryer 09 is arranged above the roll changer06, as seen in FIG. 2. The dryer 09 thus does not occupy its own spacefor its placement. Instead, it utilizes space above the roll changer 06,which space would otherwise not be fully utilized.

A cooling roller arrangement 11 is located at the outlet of each dryer09, as schematically depicted in both FIGS. 1 and 2. After passingthrough a cooling roller arrangement 11, the paper web reaches one ofseveral turning bars 12, 13, 14 or 16, at which it is deflected into thealignment direction by being turned 90° with respect to the longitudinaldirection of the associated one of the four dryers 09. It will berecalled that the alignment direction is the direction of the axes ofrotation of the cylinders defining the printing gaps in the fourprinting groups 01, 02, 03, 04.

The printing press in accordance with the present invention has fourstructural components, each of these structural components beingassembled including a printing group 01 to 04, one of the turning bars12, 13, 14 or 16, and one of each of the dryer 09 and the cooling rollerarrangement 11 placed between them.

As may be seen most clearly in FIG. 1, a first folder 17 is arranged ina space between the second and third structural components containingthe second and third printing groups 02 or 03, respectively. Astructurally identical second folder 18 is located between the first andsecond structural components, all as may be seen in FIG. 1. The turningbar 13 of the second structural component can be flipped over so that itcan be used to feed the paper web 07 imprinted by the printing group 02selectively to the first folder or to the second folder 17 or 18, asschematically depicted in FIG. 1.

Each folder 17, 18 has two longitudinal web cutting blades, which arenot specifically represented for use to accomplish the longitudinalcutting of each of the paper webs 07 fed to the respective folder 17, 18into three longitudinally extending partial webs, each partial webhaving a width of two pages. Each folder further includes threelongitudinal fold formers 19 for the longitudinal folding of the threepartial webs obtained by the longitudinal web being cut into threelongitudinally extending partial webs.,] A transverse cutting unitutilizing a transverse cutting cylinder 23 is then used for separatingthe longitudinally folded and now stacked three partial webs intoindividual groups or batches. A folding blade cylinder 21 which,together with a cooperating folding jaw cylinder 22, transversely foldsthe groups or batches obtained by the transverse cutting of the stackedpartial web, and a stack elevator, which is not specifically shown, arearranged downstream of the longitudinal fold formers 19. The overallconstruction and operation of such a folder is generally known in theart and need not be explained in detail here.

The axes of rotation of the first transverse cutting cylinders 23 ofeach of the two folders 17, 18, and the axes of rotation of at least onecylinder group delimiting a printing gap in associated ones of theprinting groups 01, 02, 03, 04 are arranged to extend parallel to eachother.

An advantage of the provision of the two essentially similar folders 17,18 is that redundancy is provided, so that in the unlikely event of thefailure of one of these folders 17, 18, it is possible to continue theoperation of the printing press by using the other one of the twofolders.

A particular advantage of the provision of the two folders 17, 18 is theincreased flexibility in production which they provide. A printing presswith a single folder only runs at the best possible efficiency if all ofits printing groups print webs of maximum width. In case of thepreferred embodiment disclosed here, having four printing groups 01 to04 which each imprint both sides of their respective web 07, and usingwebs 07 of a width of six pages, this means that 48 pages are beingprinted with each rotation of the printing cylinders by one plate widthor page height. If it is assumed that each of the printing cylinderssupports four plates in the circumferential direction, which four platesare different in pairs, twice 96 pages are being printed during eachcomplete revolution of the printing cylinders. This therefore is anamount of groups or batches at which the optimal use of the pressresults if only one folder is provided. However, such amounts of groupsor batches are not always obtained. In general, when printing atelephone directory, there will be at least one group or batch which issmaller.

In connection with the printing press depicted and described inconnection with the present invention, there are a multitude ofpossibilities for feeding or directing the webs 07 imprinted in theindividual printing groups 01 to 04 to different ones of the folders 17,18, and for processing these webs 07 in the folders 17, 18,independently of each other. When a group or batch to be produced doesnot reach the optimal amount of 96 pages, and can be imprinted by usingfewer than the four maximally possible webs, printing groups not neededfor this first production, together with one of the two folders 17, 18,can be employed for a different production. This results in a pluralityof production options, which plurality of production options have beenset forth in the table below. In that table, for each one of theprinting groups 01 to 04, the respective folder 17, 18 is shown on whichthe paper web which was imprinted by the respective printing group isreceived. For each one of the folders 17, 18 the mode of operation; i.e.“collection” or “no collection”, is shown, as well as the number ofgroups or batches obtained per revolution of the plate cylinders and thenumber of their pages. Printing Printing Printing Printing Folder 17Folder 18 Group 01 Group 02 Group 03 Group 04 Coll.* Batch Pages Coll.*Batch Pages 17 17 17 17 n 2 96 — — — 17 17 17 18 n 2 72 n 2 24 17 17 1718 n 2 72 y 1 48 17 17 18 18 n 2 48 n 2 48 17 17 18 18 n 2 48 y 1 96 1717 18 18 y 1 96 y 1 96 17 18 18 18 n 2 24 n 2 72 17 18 18 18 y 1 48 n 272 18 18 18 18 — — — n 1 96*Coll. = Collection Operation

The number of pages indicated in the table relates to the case whereinpaper webs of a full width of six pages are imprinted. Webs of a widthof four pages or of two pages can of course also be used. In that casethe indicated number of pages is correspondingly reduced.

While a preferred embodiment of printing machines comprising severalprinting groups, in accordance with the present invention has been setforth fully and completely hereinabove, it will be apparent to one ofskill in the art that various changes in, for example, the types of rollstands for the webs, the structure of the cooling rollers and the likecould be made without departing from the true spirit and scope of thepresent invention which is accordingly to be limited only by thefollowing claims.

1-21. (canceled)
 22. A printing press comprising: a first structuralcomponent including a first printing group, a first dryer and a firstturning bar, said first printing group having first printing cylinderswith first axes of rotation and defining a first printing gap; a secondstructural component including a second printing group, a second dryerand a second turning bar, said second printing group having secondprinting cylinders with second axes of rotation and defining a secondprinting gap; a third structural component including a third printinggroup, a third dryer and a third turning bar, said third printing grouphaving third printing cylinders with third axes of rotation and defininga third printing gap; a first folder arranged in a first space betweensaid structural components, said first folder including a firsttransverse cutting cylinder having a first cutting cylinder axis ofrotation parallel to at least one of said first, second and thirdprinting cylinder axes of rotation; and a second folder arranged in asecond space between said structural components, said second folderincluding a second transverse cutting cylinder having a second cuttingcylinder axis of rotation, said first and second folders being alignedin a direction of said first and second transverse cutting cylinder axesof rotation, said first, second and third printing groups being alignedin a direction of said first, second and third printing cylinder axes ofrotation.
 23. The printing press of claim 22 wherein each said first,second and third dryer has a longitudinal direction arrangedtransversely to said printing cylinder axis of rotation of an associatedone of said first, second and third printing groups.
 24. The printingpress of claim 22 wherein each said printing group includes a webguidance path extending from a lower printing group section to an upperprinting group section, each said dryer being arranged at a height ofsaid upper printing group section of said associated printing group. 25.The printing press of claim 22 wherein each said dryer bridges an areabetween an associated one of said printing groups and one of said firstand second folders.
 26. The printing press of claim 25 further includingat least one roll changer associated with each said printing group andincluded in said bridged area.
 27. The printing press of claim 22further including a roll changer positioned beneath at least one of saidfirst, second and third dryers.
 28. The printing press of claim 22including a fourth structural component.
 29. The printing press of claim28 wherein said first folder is arranged centered with respect to saidfirst, second third and fourth structural components.
 30. The printingpress of claim 22 wherein said second folder is arranged between saidfirst and second structural components.
 31. The printing press of claim22 wherein said first and second spaces are adjacent.
 32. The printingpress of claim 22 wherein said first and second spaces are non-adjacent.33. The printing press of claim 22 wherein in a first mode of operationboth of said first and second folders are operational and in a secondmode of operation a selected one of said first and second folders isoperational.
 34. The printing press of claim 22 wherein said printingpress is a telephone directory printing press.
 35. The printing press ofclaim 34 wherein each said printing cylinder has a width of six pages.36. The printing press of claim 34 wherein each said printing cylinderhas a circumference of four pages.
 37. The printing press of claim 35wherein each said printing cylinder has a circumference of four pages.38. The printing press of claim 22 further including a cooling rollergroup associated with each of said first, second and third dryers.